


you're gonna go far, kid

by audrenes



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Former Gifted Kid Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Moving On, Scrapbooks, aka the author projects heavily onto the characters yet again, galo was a freaking honor student growing up and you can fight me on that, like. literally. they are packing their apartment together to move into a bigger one., petnames, self beta, this got angstier than i intended but the fluff balances it out trust me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23835475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audrenes/pseuds/audrenes
Summary: Galo was a highly competent firefighter with EMT knowledge under his belt. He was no idiot. Lio knew this.He didn't know just how wrong everyone was about him.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 16
Kudos: 232





	you're gonna go far, kid

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to projection hours
> 
> today's subject: galo.
> 
> the topic: oh, he's SO smart but just loves acting like he isn't
> 
> Enjoy! :^)

Galo was, for all intents and purposes, a very smart and competent man despite everyone calling him an idiot and him affirming it by titling himself as the world’s number one idiot firefighter.

It didn’t take long for Lio to realize that, spending the first few weeks of reconstruction attached to the hip with Galo, watching him perform numerous health check ups on Burnish and non-Burnish citizens. Lio had lost count of the times Galo helped deliver a baby while also being able to distract the mother when they had to start rationing the pain medication. When Lio found himself at the forefront of making sure that the Burnish would get their basic human rights, Galo had revised his papers and helped pointed out loopholes in the system. He even did that while helping Lucia run diagnostics on one of the station’s mech once. Whenever someone needed to be consoled after a rescue, Galo was able to soothe their pain with more ease than anyone else on the squad.

Galo was probably one of the smartest people Lio knew. He just found it a shame that no one else really saw that in him.

But it wasn’t until about two years later that Lio found out just how wrong everyone was about Galo.

The two had been living together for over a year, dating for a year and a half. Lio had slowly started to take up space in Galo’s small apartment, but only after he had allowed himself to. It took a year, but the idea that he was allowed to stay somewhere and keep things finally set in when Galo gave him a small ceramic sculpture of a frog for his birthday. Not even for Lio's _own_ birthday. Galo had given Lio a present on _his_ birthday, claiming that he liked seeing Lio happy as he handed him the tiny ceramic frog.

And now, Lio had a growing collection of frog-related trinkets, ranging from ceramic sculptures, plush figures, and books-- mainly of _Frog and Toad_. Whenever Lio flipped its pages and gazed at the illustrations, he thought that this would be something he would love to read for his kids, if he ever found himself raising any with Galo.

It was a warm thought he never imagined of having while on the run.

Having a messy apartment to clean up after wasn’t either. Especially since he and Galo were cleaning up in preparation for a move to a slightly different apartment. A bit smaller, but had new appliances, and was closer to the station.

Galo was in the living room, sorting through his collection of books on matoi. _“Sorting”_ meaning, he was doing some light reading as he went through the process of figuring out what he wanted to keep and what he wanted to donate. Meanwhile, Lio was in the bedroom, sorting out his clothes, also figuring out what he wanted to keep or donate.

They had been blasting the radio for the past hour when Lio stumbled up on a stack of books shoved in the side of the closet. He blinked at the collection, having never seen them before because of how many heaps of fabric were stacked on and around it.

Now, he wasn’t one to nose around, but Galo made it very clear to him that anything in their apartment was also his after Lio hesitated on borrowing a book from the living room shelf.

Curiously, he took a couple books out and sat on the floor.

Upon placing one of the books on his lap and cracking it open, Lio discovered that it wasn’t just a book.

It was a scrapbook.

Between the plastic sleeves were grade reports, certificates, and every now and then, school pictures. All of Galo. And judging by its contents, they were all when he was a kid. Every grade report was a column of As next to classes that were marked 'gifted', every certificate awarding that.

Lio smiled to himself as he flipped to Galo’s third grade school photo, where he was smiling widely, a gap between his front teeth and all.

Moving on, he picked up a binder.

It wasn’t as intricately decorated as the first one, but it still had the same content.

Except the first sheet of paper in the binder indicated that he was now an orphan.

Suddenly Lio felt like he was overstepping his bounds.

“Galo? Honey, can you come in here?” Lio called. As soon as he did, the light thuds of Galo’s footsteps approached their bedroom.

“Yeah? Need something-- oh,” Galo’s tone shifted once he saw what Lio had found. His smile faltered, but he pushed through, making his way towards his boyfriend. His expression felt more forced now. It made Lio’s heart hurt a bit. “You found my scrapbooks.”

“...Was I not supposed to?”

“Ehhh, it’s whatever,” Galo said as he sat down across from Lio and picked up the first scrapbook he found. “It’s just a lot of memories. Good and bad.”

“I’m sorry that I went through it. I should’ve asked first.”

Galo’s eyes flicked upward to see his boyfriend start to close the binder on his lap. “Hey, no-- it’s fine. Really.”

Lio gave him an uncertain look.

“Honest! Like-- look--” Galo placed the scrapbook in his hand aside and flipped through the one Lio had. “This one’s the one where I got transferred into an orphanage. And check it out, Lio.”

Galo flipped to a page with a certificate with a flourish.

“I was an honor student!” Lio huffed out a smile as Galo beamed. “Hard to believe, I know.”

“Not really. You’re smarter than what anyone gives you credit for,” Lio said. “Including yourself.”

“Ahh, not really,” Galo shrugged and leaned onto their bed frame.

Lio glares at him, takes another binder, flips through it, and quickly analyzes it. He would’ve been quicker if he had his glasses on, but he was trying to prove a point here, his slight headache be damned. “You were an AP student. Advanced Placement, right? You got fours on a lot of your exams.”

“Not a lot of them...”

“Galo, you took a total of _nineteen_ AP classes. You took _six_ during your senior year.”

Galo blows air through his lips. “Yeah, that was a pretty dumb move. I only passed like… half of those, haha.”

 _“Galo,”_ Lio scolds.

“What?”

“You did so well that you got a few scholarships for it. To pursue firefighting.”

“Yeah, well,” Galo grumbled, his words becoming more incoherent.

“Galo, you’re obviously not an idiot, why do you let people call you one?”

“”Cause!” Galo huffed. “I dunno… I spent a lot of my childhood being told I was smart. I started growing up and realized that I wasn’t as smart as what the adults thought I was. I got sad over it. But then I stopped being sad when I realized that I didn’t need to know everything to be a good firefighter.”

Galo paused and flips to the last page of the binder at the bottom of the pile. “Y’see everyone on the front row?”

Lio nods. “How about you?”

“Right there,” Galo points at the fifth row. “Anyway, almost everyone who sat in that front row was a dick. They acted like they were better than everyone else just ‘cause their GPA was so high. They cheated on their tests just so they could sit up there, and for what?”

Galo bit back his lip.

“What, Galo?”

“...Remember when we got the list of people who were invited on Parnassus?”

“Hmph. _“The Chosen Ones”_ , yeah,” Lio rolled his eyes and grit his teeth. “All anti-Burnish, everyone responsible one way or another for putting every Burnish in that fucking engine.”

“All but one of them were on that list,” Galo said quietly.

They almost forgot about the speaker playing the radio in the kitchen until inappropriately timed bubbly pop music blasted from the speaker in the kitchen, as Galo pointed at the valedictorian. “Eirini wasn’t, though.”

Galo started to list more names, popping around the rows, pointing them out and talking briefly about each person, how he got to know them during and after high school, before he made his way back to the first row.

“By the time I was a senior in high school, I was burning out real bad without even knowing it. I hung out after school in the library to study since it was hard to focus back home and I got to know the counselor. She was the one who pointed it out to me and after that I was just. Done. I still tried, but I wasn’t grieving over a B or fussing over my ranking in my grade. It felt really nice not caring,” a smile formed on Galo’s lips.

“And I dunno,” Galo said as he started to stack the binders. “I like being dumb and knowing I have more to learn over being smart and thinking I know everything any day.”

It seemed like Galo wanted to say more on that, but he was stopping himself from continuing.

Lio was curious, but he didn’t want to push the envelope either, so he didn’t insist.

Galo was about to stand up and move the scrapbook and binders into a box, but Lio pulled at his sleeve, guiding him back toward him. Once he was within reach, Lio pressed his lips against Galo’s, pulling him in his gravity.

“Do you want to take a break?” Lio asked.

Galo blinked at him and hummed before breaking out a wide grin. “Yeah, I could use a break!”

Lio smiled and kissed the corner of his mouth. “Good. I want to hold you for a bit.”

“Ohh, reverse burrito time, huh?” Galo teased as he stood up.

“Yes, reverse burrito time,” Lio said as Galo helped him up on his feet. “It’s nice just being able to hold you sometimes, you know?”

“Mmm,” Galo wrapped his arms around Lio’s body over his shoulders, waddling them over to their bed. “Makes sense.”

It wasn’t hard for them to situate themselves on the twin-sized bed, the mattress was definitely going to be donated to opt for a king-sized one. They were going to miss the memories that were tied to it.

This one was going to be one of them.

“Galo,” Lio whispered.

“Yeah?”

“You’re not an idiot.”

“I know.”

“...”

“...’m not an eyesore, either, right?”

Lio’s eyes widened at that, his head shifting down as Galo buried his face in the fabric of the one of many hoodies Lio stole from him.

 _“Of course not,”_ Lio said, holding onto Galo tighter.

Part of him wanted to kick himself for picking at a scab that was still healing. Another part of him wanted to drive down to the prison and kick Kray’s ass instead.

But this wasn’t about him.

And Galo needed him right now.

“Galo Thymos, you are the best and brightest thing that’s ever happened to me,” Lio continued. A smile cracking as he continued. “You are the sun of my stars, my opalescent firecracker, my effervescent starfish of the night sky.”

Lio chuckled as he heard Galo sniff and shake lightly with laughter instead of tears. He kissed him on the top of his head.

“You are like a matoi in the wildfire,” Lio said. He felt Galo start to relax. “And I am never letting you go.”

The playlist finally eased into slower, softer songs, allowing their eyelids to drift downward. Lio glanced over at the closet, then down at the pile of scrapbooks and closed his eyes.

If there was anything he learned in the past few years, it was that if he found something worth keeping, he was going to protect it with all he had. And just because he was able to keep more things, didn’t mean that he didn’t cherish the ones that were the most important to him.

And Galo was one of them.

**Author's Note:**

> galo was a former gifted/AP kid and is very smart and takes comfort knowing that he doesnt have to be the smartest one in the room and that's okay, and it's just fun being impulsive while still having some basic human empathy
> 
> also lio uses petnames more between them and you can ALSO fight me on that
> 
> my credibility writing this is because i was a gifted kid that became an AP kid and i have grown up to learn that being smart is overrated actually and it's very sexy of me to have my head empty with no thoughts lol
> 
> edit: i have uploaded the [origin story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23898586) of lio's fwoggy collection
> 
> I'm @https_aj on both [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/https_aj/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/https_aj). Find me at [@galoliogalilei](https://www.instagram.com/https_aj/) for pure shenanigans. (18+ tho bc I am more unhinged there lol)


End file.
